1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to methods and systems for facilitating e-commerce and, more particularly, for enabling merchants to provide proof of delivery of digital goods items for preventing or reducing fraud.
2. Related Art
In today's media market, it is not at all uncommon to sell and deliver digital content such as files, software, art, photographs, music, and movies through a number of electronic sources. This is usually referred to as digital e-commerce or digital download delivery. Digital goods is a general term that may be used in e-commerce to refer to any goods that are stored, delivered, or used electronically and may be used in a variety of industries, such as gaming, online content, and premium video. Examples of digital goods include e-books, music files, games, video, news articles, media content, software, digital images, website templates, manuals in electronic format, or any item which can be electronically stored in a file or multiple files. People also purchase digital goods in all sorts of online applications ranging from social networking apps (applications) and games to massively multiplayer online games. Some of the most popular items of these digital goods include virtual goods such as virtual money and virtual weapons. Free-to-play games, where one can start playing for free and then buy items in the game as one needs them, also account for a large amount of virtual goods transactions.
Digital goods may be delivered electronically to the consumer through e-mail, for example, or by download from the Internet. Usually when purchasing digital goods online, after the merchant has received payment the merchant may provide the digital goods item as an e-mail attachment or may provide the purchaser with a secure link where the purchaser can download the item.